"decision-making. Former ministers such as Clare Short and Chris Smith have criticised the lack of decision-making power in Cabinet. When she resigned, Short denounced ""the centralisation of power into the hands of the Prime Minister and an increasingly small number of advisers"". Graham Allen (a Government Whip during Tony Blair's first government) made the case in ""The Last Prime Minister: Being Honest About the UK Presidency"" (2003) that in fact the office of prime minister has presidential powers. However, the presidentialisation thesis has been extensively criticised as well. Keith Dowding, for example, argues that British Prime Ministers are already more"
"David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician. He was the final Liberal to serve as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. As Chancellor of the Exchequer (1908–1915) during H. H. Asquith's tenure as Prime Minister, Lloyd George was a key figure in the introduction of many reforms which laid the foundations of the modern welfare state. His most important role came as the highly energetic Prime Minister of the Wartime Coalition Government (1916–22), during and immediately after the First World War."
"judged to be Anthony Eden. Historian Francis Beckett ranked the 20th-century prime ministers with points out of five in 2006, based on how well the leaders implemented their policies—not on the policies themselves. Margaret Thatcher and Clement Attlee shared the highest ranking. In September 2008 the BBC ""Newsnight"" programme conducted an online poll. Asking voters to decide who they thought was the greatest and worst of post-war prime ministers. 27,000 people responded, and decided that Winston Churchill was the greatest, with Attlee second. The full results were: In a BBC poll to find the 100 Greatest Britons in 2002, five"
"Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold that office. A Soviet journalist dubbed her ""The 'Iron Lady, a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As Prime Minister, she implemented policies known as Thatcherism. A research chemist at Somerville College, Oxford, before becoming a barrister, Thatcher"
"Foundation in 2006, where she established the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom. Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold that office. A Soviet journalist dubbed her ""The 'Iron Lady, a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As Prime Minister, she implemented policies known as Thatcherism."
"Alec Douglas-Home Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel, (; 2 July 1903 – 9 October 1995) was a British statesman and Conservative Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1963 to October 1964. He is notable for being the most recent Prime Minister to hold office while being a member of the House of Lords, before renouncing his peerage and taking up a seat in the House of Commons for the remainder of his premiership. His reputation, however, rests more on his two spells as Britain's foreign secretary than on his brief"
"H. H. Asquith Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928), generally known as H. H. Asquith, was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916. He was the last prime minister to lead a majority Liberal government. He played a central role in the design and passage of major liberal legislation and a reduction of the power of the House of Lords. In August 1914, Asquith took Great Britain and the British Empire into the First World War. In"
"1975 to 1993. Lord Moyola died on 17 May 2002 at the age of 79; he was the last surviving Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. James Chichester-Clark James Dawson Chichester-Clark, Baron Moyola, PC, DL (12 February 1923 – 17 May 2002) was the penultimate Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and eighth leader of the Ulster Unionist Party between 1969 and March 1971. He was Member of the Northern Ireland Parliament for South Londonderry for 12 years, beginning at the by-election to replace his grandmother Dehra Parker in 1960. He stopped being an MP when the Stormont Parliament was suspended and"
"of . From oldest to youngest: The most recent death of a former Prime Minister was that of Baroness Thatcher (served 1979–90) on 8 April 2013 (aged 87 years, 177 days). Seven Prime Ministers have died in office: Spencer Perceval is the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated. Sir Robert Peel, Margaret Thatcher and John Major survived assassination attempts in 1843, 1984 and 1991 respectively. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and Bonar Law each resigned during their respective final illnesses. Law died five months after his resignation, but Campbell-Bannerman lived only another 19 days, dying at 10 Downing Street, the"
"months, the last one in late November 1907. It affected him badly. He was forced to resign on 4 April 1908 and died on 22 April at No. 10 Downing Street, aged 77. Asquith succeeded him as Prime Minister and retained Grey as Foreign Secretary and Haldane as War Secretary. He went on to lead one of the most successful reforming governments of the 20th century. The Relugas Compact The Relugas Compact was the plot hatched in 1905 by British Liberal Party politicians H. H. Asquith, Sir Edward Grey, and R. B. Haldane to force the prospective Prime Minister, Sir"
"campaigner for abortion law reform and free birth control. Douglas Houghton, Baron Houghton of Sowerby Arthur Leslie Noel Douglas Houghton, Baron Houghton of Sowerby, (11 August 1898 – 2 May 1996) was a British Labour politician. He was the last British Cabinet minister born in the 19th century. After he retired in 1967, every Cabinet minister has been born since 1900. He was also the last veteran of World War I to serve in the Cabinet and both Houses of Parliament. Houghton was born in Long Eaton, Derbyshire and later secured a post in the civil service. He then fought"
"human dignity and the environment, and for the major role he has played in helping to stabilise the world's financial system"". Speeches Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Blair Government from 1997 to 2007. Brown was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1983 to 2015, first for Dunfermline East and later for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. A doctoral graduate of the University of Edinburgh, Brown spent his"
"Tony Blair Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of the Opposition before becoming Prime Minister and remains the last British Labour Party leader to have won a general election. From 1983 to 2007, Blair was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield. He was elected Labour Party leader in July 1994, following the sudden death of his predecessor, John Smith. Under Blair's leadership, the party used"
"academics specialising in post-1945 British history and politics, following the Brexit referendum. Due to the date range, Churchill's oft-lauded war and caretaker ministries were not in contention and he was judged solely on his second premiership. In December 1999 a BBC Radio 4 poll of 20 prominent historians, politicians and commentators for ""The Westminster Hour"" produced the verdict that Churchill was the best British prime minister of the 20th century, with Lloyd George in second place and Clement Attlee in third place. As Blair was still in office he was not ranked. The worst Prime Minister in that survey was"
"the middle name until the 1980s.) The richest Prime Minister was Lord Derby, with a personal fortune of over £7 million (about £444 million in today's money). The poorest was William Pitt the Younger, who was £40,000 (now over £1 million) in debt by 1800. Three Prime Ministers ultimately died as a result of accidents: Records of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom The article lists the records of Prime Ministers of Great Britain and of the United Kingdom since 1721. The Prime Minister with the longest single term was Sir Robert Walpole, lasting 20 years and 315 days from"
"Douglas Houghton, Baron Houghton of Sowerby Arthur Leslie Noel Douglas Houghton, Baron Houghton of Sowerby, (11 August 1898 – 2 May 1996) was a British Labour politician. He was the last British Cabinet minister born in the 19th century. After he retired in 1967, every Cabinet minister has been born since 1900. He was also the last veteran of World War I to serve in the Cabinet and both Houses of Parliament. Houghton was born in Long Eaton, Derbyshire and later secured a post in the civil service. He then fought in the First World War, surviving the Battle of"
"decline of the British Liberal Party after 1910. It should also be noted that ""The Strange Death of Tory England"" had previously been used as a title by Anne Applebaum for an article published in June 2001. The pictorial dust cover of the book's first edition shows the last Conservative prime minister, John Major, batting in a game of cricket, at the moment of being ""clean bowled"" (his wicket demolished). That alludes to Major's well-known love of cricket and to the result of the United Kingdom general election of 1997, which was won in a landslide by the Labour Party"
"was held at Westminster Abbey where later his ashes were interred. His estate was probated at £35,736 (approximately £ as of 2019). Bonar Law was the shortest-serving PM of the 20th century. He is often referred to as ""the unknown Prime Minister"", not least because of a biography of that title by Robert Blake; the name comes from a remark by Asquith at Bonar Law's funeral, that they were burying the Unknown Prime Minister next to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Sir Steven Runciman is reported to have said that he had known all British Prime Ministers in his"
"John Major Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. He served as Foreign Secretary and then Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Thatcher Government from 1989 to 1990, and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdon from 1979 until his retirement in 2001. Since the death of Margaret Thatcher in 2013, Major has been the oldest living former Prime Minister. Born in St Helier, Surrey, Major grew up in Brixton. He initially worked as an insurance"
"are either miniatures or are based on a death mask by Joseph Nollekens. Perceval was the last British prime minister to wear a powdered wig tied in a queue, and knee-breeches according to the old-fashioned style of the 18th century. He is sometimes referred to as one of Britain's forgotten prime ministers, remembered only for the manner of his death. Although not considered an inspirational leader, he is generally seen as a devout, industrious, principled man who at the head of a weak government steered the country through difficult times. A contemporary MP Henry Grattan, used a naval analogy to"
"in descending order of rank: Historically, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was also the First Lord of the Treasury, and usually by extension Prime Minister as well. However the increasing sophistication of government spending led to the development of the chancellorship into a more refined position of finance minister, and so gradually particularised the office in a way less suitable for headship of the ministry overall. The last Chancellor-Prime Minister was Stanley Baldwin in 1923, and then only very briefly - the last substantive overlap was William Gladstone in 1880-1882. A more immediately significant trend though was the rebalancing of"
"all Prime Ministers in the last half of the 20th century. A man of superb intellect, knowledge, and literacy, he yet had little ability when it came to economics. ... Whitlam rivalled Menzies in his passion for the House of Representatives and ability to use it as his stage, and yet his parliamentary skills were rhetorical and not tactical. He could devise a strategy and then often botch the tactics in trying to implement that strategy. ... Above all he was a man of grand vision with serious blind spots. Whitlam's last words in the documentary film ""Gough Whitlam –"
"recent legislation. The last British Prime Minister to sit in the House of Lords was The 3rd Marquess of Salisbury in 1902. By 1923, having to choose between Baldwin and Lord Curzon, George V decided that ""the requirements of the present times"" obliged him to appoint a Prime Minister from the Commons. His private secretary recorded that the King ""believed he would not be fulfilling his trust were he now to make his selection of Prime Minister from the House of Lords"". Similarly, after the resignation of Neville Chamberlain in 1940 there were two likely successors, Churchill and Halifax, but"
"had predicted the evening before the vote at a private meeting. Bonar Law formed a government shortly thereafter, but Chamberlain was not given a post, but it seems that he would not have accepted a position even if he had been offered one. Austen and Neville Chamberlain and Iain Duncan Smith are the only three Conservative leaders not to lead the party into a general election. Until William Hague (1997-2001), Austen was the only Conservative leader in the 20th century not to become Prime Minister. After the second resignation of Bonar Law in May 1923 (Law died from throat cancer"
"transitions between reigns, eight Prime Ministers each served under two sovereigns: George III had 14 Prime Ministers serving during his 59-year reign (reigned 1760–1820), beginning with the Duke of Newcastle. The last incumbent, Lord Liverpool, was the only one appointed by his son (the Prince Regent) during the father's final incapacity to rule. In downward numerical order, numbers of Prime Ministers in office during other reigns are: Only six Prime Ministers came to serve office under sovereigns in whose own reigns they were born. The present Prime Minister, Theresa May, is the third Prime Minister to have been born in"
"a different one). By this second mechanism, the government of the United Kingdom can change without an intervening general election. Only four of the eight last Prime Ministers have attained office as the immediate result of a general election; the others have gained office upon the resignation of a Prime Minister of their own party. The latter four were Jim Callaghan, John Major, Gordon Brown and the current Prime Minister Theresa May; these four inherited the office from Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and David Cameron respectively. In such circumstances there may not even have been an internal party"
"Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Blair Government from 1997 to 2007. Brown was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1983 to 2015, first for Dunfermline East and later for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. A doctoral graduate of the University of Edinburgh, Brown spent his early career working as both a lecturer at a further education college and a television journalist. He entered Parliament in 1983 as"
"James Callaghan Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, (; 27 March 1912 – 26 March 2005), often known as Jim Callaghan, served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980. Callaghan is, to date, the only British politician to have served in all four of the Great Offices of State, having been Chancellor of the Exchequer (1964–1967), Home Secretary (1967–1970), and Foreign Secretary (1974–1976) prior to his appointment as Prime Minister. As Prime Minister, he had some successes, but is mainly remembered for the ""Winter of"
"in the 2014 play ""Handbagged"". Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington Peter Alexander Rupert Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, (6 June 1919 – 9 July 2018) was a British Conservative politician and hereditary peer who served as Defence Secretary from 1970 to 1974, Foreign Secretary from 1979 to 1982, chairman of British General Electric Company from 1983 to 1984, and Secretary General of NATO from 1984 to 1988. Before his death in 2018, he was the last surviving member of the 1951–55 government of Winston Churchill, the Eden government, and the Macmillan government, as well as of the cabinets of Alec Douglas-Home"
"Records of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom The article lists the records of Prime Ministers of Great Britain and of the United Kingdom since 1721. The Prime Minister with the longest single term was Sir Robert Walpole, lasting 20 years and 315 days from 3 April 1721 until 11 February 1742. This is also longer than the accumulated terms of any other Prime Minister. The shortest period in office is more confused, depending on the criteria. The shortest ever period was only three days, a record held by Lord Bath, from 10 February to 12 February 1746, who was"
"of 258 academics who specialised in 20th-century British history and/or politics. There were 139 replies to the survey, a return rate of 54%—by far the most extensive survey done so far. The respondents were asked, among other historical questions, to rate all the 20th-century prime ministers (PM) in terms of their success and asking them to assess the key characteristics of successful PMs. Respondents were asked to indicate on a scale of 0 to 10 how successful or unsuccessful they considered each PM to have been in office (with 0 being highly unsuccessful and 10 highly successful). A mean of"
"of the Garter. The most recent former Prime Minister to die was Margaret Thatcher (served 1979–1990) on 8 April 2013, aged 87. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of the United Kingdom Government. The Prime Minister (informally abbreviated to PM) and Cabinet (consisting of all the most senior ministers, most of whom are government department heads) are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Monarch, to Parliament, to their political party and ultimately to the electorate. The Office is one of the Great Offices of State. The of"
"James Chichester-Clark James Dawson Chichester-Clark, Baron Moyola, PC, DL (12 February 1923 – 17 May 2002) was the penultimate Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and eighth leader of the Ulster Unionist Party between 1969 and March 1971. He was Member of the Northern Ireland Parliament for South Londonderry for 12 years, beginning at the by-election to replace his grandmother Dehra Parker in 1960. He stopped being an MP when the Stormont Parliament was suspended and subsequently abolished with the introduction of Direct Rule by the British Government. Chichester-Clark's election as UUP leader resulted from the sudden resignation of Terence O'Neill"